Happiness Project: Positivity Playlist

I've recently discovered that most of my favorite music kind of carries depressing undertones.  Yeah.  Not necessarily depressing in a bad way - often, in a very good way, as the music and lyrics blend perfectly to convey the emotion of the song.  It's just that often, the emotion is unrequited love, over-glorification of being in love, or love lost.  I also possess a large quantity of Broadway music, which opens the door to identification with any number of dramatic plot-based conflict.  As much as I like all of this music, it can kind of wear you down to listen to it after awhile.  Anyone know what I mean?  I'm all for identifying with the pangs of love and catharsis through music...but sometimes you  just want something peppy.

Over the past couple of days, I've been going through my iTunes creating a "positivity playlist" - a collection of songs that never fail to make me smile.  Whether because they're ridiculously egotistical, spiritually uplifting, or just amazingly obscure, it's hard to feel sad when I listen to these songs.  I got a new iPod speaker for Christmas, so I'm planning to listen to the positivity playlist every morning when I'm getting ready for the day...if I can figure out how, maybe even use it as an alarm to more gently ease myself into daily consciousness.

Here's the list of my happy songs, as it stands after sifting through my iTunes...

-"Pretty Girl Rock", Keri Hilson
       With opening lyrics like "My name is Keri, I'm so very fly, oh my, it's a little bit scary...", you know this is gonna be so ridiculously vain that it provides a fantastic ego boost.  Thanks to my friend Lauren for the suggestion, her referral of this song actually sparked this whole idea.


-"Firework", Katy Perry
          I'm not a big Katy Perry fan, but this song is all about standing out and shining when you feel knocked down and overwhelmed.  I could use some of that in my life.  And fireworks are pretty.


-"Hey, Soul Sister", Train
        It has a ukelele.  And it just oozes happiness.


-"Nothin' On You", B.o.B/Bruno Mars
       It's about being beautiful.  Always good.  And it reminds me of that time that my friends Abby, Erica, Maggie and I drove to Cincinnati to see the Cardinals/Reds game and it played on the radio 500 times.


-"New Shoes", Paolo Nutini
       Because sometimes an attitude adjustment is as easy as a quick wardrobe change.

-"Everything to Me", Rockapella
     Yes, I got this song of the "Carmen San Diego" soundtrack that my family has owned since I was about 6. But, I'm always for a male a capella group singing about using ridiculous travel means to reach their girl.


-"Marvelous Light", Charlie Hall
       It's the song they sang at church the first time I went after deciding to get serious about my faith freshman year of college.  I listened to it practically every day in my baby Christian-hood.


-"Belle Demoiselle", Christophe Mae
         A peppy French song about a guy seeing a beautiful girl.  Let's imagine he's singing to me.


-"Everything Glorious", David Crowder Band
        One of my favorite praise songs; a reminder that God makes everything glorious, ourselves included.


-"You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)", Micheal W. Smith
       I like songs with echoes and opposing vocal parts...especially God-oriented ones that you can sing with your friends (or laugh at your ridiculous failure to successfully sing the opposite part, as some of my Perkins friends and I experienced one night)


-"I'll Make a Man Out of You", Mulan
      Gender disparity aside, I like to listen to this song because, as my friend Elizabeth once said, it makes me feel like somehow, by doing whatever it is I'm doing, I'm helping to defeat the Huns.


-"Fame", Naturi Naughton
       Besides being another fantastically egotistical song about how incredibly important and awesome you are, it allows me to spontaneously burst into last year's Cabaret choreography.


-"Umbrella Beach", Owl City
       Because it is just happy and bouncy, and involves "spread your wings and fly" imagery...and, on a deeper level, maintaining a connection to home even when you can't see it.


-"Dieu Si Merveilleux", Stephan Query
        The French version of Chris Tomlin's "Awesome is the Lord Most High."  It makes me feel like jumping up and down.


-"Beautiful Place", Urban Blight
         Another byproduct of the "Carmen San Diego" CD discovery, I was actually surprised to be able to locate this one on YouTube.  It's one of those obscure-lyric songs that is about seeing beauty in things that might not seem so great.


-"Turn, Turn, Turn", The Byrds
      Because there's a time for everything, and a time to every purpose under heaven.


So there you have it.  Let me know if you have any suggestions!